Stuff: American Airlines Pilots Net Access

Because some things you simply need to know. Here’s the day’s news in a quick digest form. Because tomorrow’s news hasn’t happened yet.

American Airlines is piloting, no pun intended, in-flight net access starting today on two flights, with plans to roll it out further in a few weeks. You can connect to American’s site and their news headlines for free, but if you want to connect anywhere else, it’s between $9.95 and $12.95 for the service. Personally, I would think they’d throw that in for free, since surfing the web is a welcome distraction from the living hell that is traveling anywhere these days. We won’t beat them up too badly, partly because it’s bad form to kick a crippled industry (that’s not involved with music or movies) and partly because they aren’t going to be filtering content. So you could come…here, for example. Where I’m liable to say a profane word at random. You’ve been warned.

Coldplay is getting a month-long dedicated channel on XM Radio called “30 Days of Coldplay.” It’s going to be a lot like the vampire comic book, except with an even unhappier ending.

DVDs: House: Season 4 (Aug. 19). How the West Was Won has changed its date–for all three versions, Ultimate, regular, or Blu-Ray–to September 9th. Now you might be asking what the difference is between the Ultimate Collector’s Edition and the two-disc edition. The answer is a “20-page theatrical press book reproduction, 10 behind-the-scenes photo cards and 10 postcards, and an exclusive movie poster offer.” So on one hand, you would really need to be a collector to jump at that. On the other hand, it’s only $4 more. So. You be the judge.

I am Murloc, was apparently a World of Warcraft song by Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain (which is a good name for a band, but oddly, I think an even better name for a fragrance), Blizzard Entertainment’s house band. It is now being put up as a free downloadable track on XBox Live and the PlaystationStore so you can play it yourself on Guitar Hero III. This will be available starting…well, tomorrow, actually. Me, I’m just pleased with the idea of a gaming company house band. One day the industry will have its own Paul Shaffer. Think on that for a moment.